LETTERS TO THE GREEN

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, March 12, 2006

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

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bonds_163_df.jpg
Barry Bonds takes batting practice just before he finds out about a steroid story on him on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Event was shot on 3/7/06 in Scottsdale.
San Francisco Chronicle photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice less

bonds_163_df.jpg
Barry Bonds takes batting practice just before he finds out about a steroid story on him on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Event was shot on 3/7/06 in Scottsdale.
San Francisco Chronicle ... more

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

LETTERS TO THE GREEN

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Betrayal or vendetta?

I know I'm about to sound naïve. I do understand that professional sports today is not "real" on the level that Koufax and Mays were real. Almost all the players are wealthy beyond my understanding, and they live in a world of agents, publicists, lawyers and other thieves.

I know they feel they are in the "entertainment business."

I do understand something very simple, that those involved in Major League Baseball do not seem to understand. I know what these heroes mean, in the hearts of children all over this country.

I was a teacher; I am a father. I know well the feelings of trust and exaltation that fill fans young and old. When innocence is lied to, by those who should have been man enough to be honest, I still notice. When "Please pitch to my daddy" is turned into a sick episode in a life devoted to cheating, it still matters.

And I know one thing these millionaires had best learn quickly. They may be so jaded that nothing is really right or wrong any more, but there is a line they cannot cross. There really is a betrayal that baseball cannot survive. If the commissioner, the owners and the players continue to act as if baseball did not really matter, one morning it will be true. It will not matter to anyone. Ticket holders will wonder how they went out of their minds and spent their money on nothing.

And up in the last row of the third deck, there will be two empty seats where my son and I used to be.

CHARLES KOPP

Lafayette

Higher authority

Editor -- Perhaps we should be asking this question: If he were alive, what would Jackie Robinson say to Barry Bonds right now? I'd go along with whatever that might be.

JIM SCHOCK

Mill Valley

No Hall pass

Editor -- It pains me that several Chron writers still feel like Barry should be in the Hall, since he was "Hall-worthy" before the steroids. Wasn't Pete Rose Hall-worthy before his mishaps? He cheated too, didn't he?

Once and for all, we have to make character as big as it is, or eliminate it altogether, but we can't go back and forth forever. I'm a diehard A's fan, but Mark McGwire shouldn't get in either.

Either everybody gets in or nobody does, under the same rules. If they say that "hey, many people in there cheated, gambled, etc., so it's just part of it," then what is not OK anymore? Why have a character portion to ponder at all?

DUANE TAPKEN

San Francisco

Do the right thing

So, Bruce Jenkins ("Giants' line on Bonds makes sense to them," March 9) thinks "everyone" looked the other way at Barry Bonds' lying and cheating, because "the show was too good."

Uh, not really. My family, including two young baseball fans/boys, is continuing its Bonds-inspired boycott of the Giants this season. If not for the reasons that became all too obvious this week, then for his shameful behavior as a human being, including trotting his son as a prop at last spring's self-pity-fest of a news conference so disgusting my son rid himself of his Bonds memorabilia on the spot.

The one thing that could get us back to whatever the Giants are calling their park these days is the same thing that could possibly save what's left of Bonds' tainted legacy.

Quit, Barry. Quit now. For once, do the right thing.

JACK BUNGART

Napa

He's no different

Editor -- We are a society of pill poppers. Ads tell us to take a pill that will cause us to then blissfully run through life, as symbolized by meadows of daisies. Why should athletes be held to a higher standard? We love you, Barry. Thanks for all the thrills. Play ball.

ERNIE VASQUEZ

San Francisco

The view from elsewhere

Editor -- I find myself wondering how this Barry Bonds saga is playing out in San Francisco with the excerpts released from the book. I believe that Bonds did steroids, as I believe most baseball fans do outside S.F. I need nothing more than my eyes to know a 40-year old doesn't grow like that naturally.

I am a rabid listener to WEEI in Boston, and there are even some Barry apologists here who roll out the old "he never flunked a test" line. Even blindly loyal fans have to admit, this book leaves little doubt that he cheated his way to 708 home runs (maybe someday 756). The worst thing is, he was a Hall of Famer before he became "The Hulk." I hope the voting members will now have the guts not to vote in an obvious heather.

PAUL MARTIN

Taunton, Mass.

It's old news

Editor -- Boy, that's a really heavy vendetta you have going there, guys. Wow! A NEW book -- with old, old news. You are like the little kid stomping his feet and screaming "Mommy, make him say he did it!" I do not care; I know of no one who cares. So some baseball players took (take) steroids, some players do lots of speed (Hammerin' Hank for one), some players probably enhance their games with stuff you have not "discovered" yet -- it is a game! And Barry plays it better than maybe anyone ever has.

And, all of you oh so pure Bay Area snobs, stop whining about the "integrity" of the game. Everyone I know is tired of you also.

SHARON MONSEY

Oakland

The dream dies

Editor -- Baseball insiders may have simply had their negative impression of Bonds confirmed by the excerpts from "Game of Shadows," but outsiders like me got a grotesque, naked glimpse from this week's revelations.

Prior to this devastating release we basically knew Bonds was, for lack of a better word, a jerk, but so were the best kids on our Little League teams, and we cheered them when they won games for us. We did the same for Bonds for the wins he brought our team and his otherworldly presence at the plate.

It may sound corny, but watching him play made aging adults like me feel like a kid again. It took me back to my youth when the summer was built around listening to ballgames on the radio, collecting baseball cards, playing Wiffle ball with my friends until dark -- the time in our lives when baseball was pure. We accepted him despite reports of an abrasive personality because we thought he respected and loved the game as we do.

The Bonds steroid allegations to this point were softened by the uncertainties of extent, circumstances and motivations. These revelations, so thorough and substantiated that no honest person can refute their overall validity, destroyed any benefit of the doubt. Eating from the tree of Bonds knowledge today left me depressed and nauseated. He ascended our cherished world of baseball and made fools of it and of us. The Bonds I knew is dead.

T.P. RICHARDSON

Menlo Park

Pointing the finger

Editor -- The blame in the steroid scandal and the saga of Barry Bonds lies directly at the feet of the Major League Baseball owners and Commissioner Bud Selig. Their crime was to sit idly by, not necessarily condoning, but still passively and knowingly empowering drug dealers, trainers and laboratory owners to supply their goods, unencumbered, to eager athletes.

The drug problem in baseball could have been stopped years ago if it was a priority. Nothing of consequence was done to clean up the game because athletes were breaking records by breaking the rules, and nothing will be done by this present bunch because many years ago this new wave of sports owners took control out of the hands of those who truly loved and cared about the integrity and future of the great game of baseball.

If further proof of the utter mismanagement of our national pastime is needed, just answer this question: Years from now, when baseball recovers from this drug-abuse mess and the records mean something again, who will the historians of the game look upon as the one who made the most positive contribution -- Barry Bonds or Jose Canseco?

JIM GREENE

San Francisco

Strike the records

Editor -- Although I'm an ardent Giants fan, Barry Bonds' 73-home-run season should be stricken from the record books along with Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's totals of 1998. If Bonds passes Ruth and Aaron with Major League Baseball's approval, the game will forever be discredited.

Now, its up to Bud Selig to save the game from disgrace.

MARS BRESLOW

San Francisco

Just cashing in

Editor -- So that's what the authors were after: selling a book.

I really don't care what The Chronicle reporters say or write. They have always been after Bonds.

WILL LEE

San Francisco

A

season ruined

Editor -- How sad to see that Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams have bowed to the almighty dollar. Bonds has few believers to be sure, but the Sports Illustrated cover story and a book release a week before the start of the new season reek of profit from both the authors and SI and add nothing to a worn-out story.

I thought I was going to enjoy the season this year, but now we get hit with a fresh dose of the same old garbage. The thought of allowing the fans of San Francisco to actually enjoy a season of baseball is obviously lost on our local writers, who have traded in their journalistic integrity for a few extra bucks.

Thanks for the retread -- and for starting our season with another heap of trash. Call me when Bonds fails a drug test or is indicted for lying under oath.

MIKE ESPOSITO

Walnut Creek

A

happy future

Editor -- Won't it be a wonderful thing when Barry Bonds finally retires from baseball? Then, and only then, can the baseball players in San Francisco finally be called a team again.

MICHAEL MASAR

San Leandro

Don't forget Rose

Editor -- If Barry Bonds is allowed into the Hall of Fame, what about Pete Rose? He contributed in a major way to baseball, and he has been banned. These steroid users should be banned from baseball and the Hall of Fame, just as Pete Rose has been banned.

DEBBIE CROWLEY

Via e-mail

A

better candidate

It's ridiculous that people endlessly flap their gums about the Hall of Fame worthiness of a miserable (but, oh so complex!) human being as Barry Bonds, yet have no mettle to pursue the ridiculous snub of Buck O'Neil, who is undoubtedly the greatest ambassador the game has had in the past 30 years. You really care about the integrity of the game? Get ol' Buck in, and let Barry stew in his own juice.

MIKE CLUFF

Topeka, Kan.

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